The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Introduced some blues music to my girlfriend and she likes it. We were listening to Stranger Blues on a Vocalion 78, blue label, I don't have numbers for it.

Who are some artists like Ms Miles I can look for? I know almost nothing about blues but am reading a book on it and trying to figure it out. Only recently did I really start liking it, so it is underrepresented in my record collection.

I have a couple of her records. One is on blue gold band Columbia, the other is on Victor. edisonplayer.

Anything by Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey, Sara Martin, Mamie Smith, Trixie Smith, Ethel Waters, Ida Cox, Sippie Wallace, Alberta Hunter, Edith Wilson, Clara Smith, Bertha "Chippie" Hill or Lucille Hegamin. All good stuff from that era.

Steve

ChesterCheetah18 wrote: Tue May 23, 2023 6:46 pm Anything by Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey, Sara Martin, Mamie Smith, Trixie Smith, Ethel Waters, Ida Cox, Sippie Wallace, Alberta Hunter, Edith Wilson, Clara Smith, Bertha "Chippie" Hill or Lucille Hegamin. All good stuff from that era.

Steve

Thanks Steve. Those are some names I can work with.

I'm going to have to be prepared to wait awhile and pick them up slowly.

VanEpsFan1914 wrote: Fri Jun 09, 2023 10:51 pm

ChesterCheetah18 wrote: Tue May 23, 2023 6:46 pm Anything by Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey, Sara Martin, Mamie Smith, Trixie Smith, Ethel Waters, Ida Cox, Sippie Wallace, Alberta Hunter, Edith Wilson, Clara Smith, Bertha "Chippie" Hill or Lucille Hegamin. All good stuff from that era.

Steve

Thanks Steve. Those are some names I can work with.

I'm going to have to be prepared to wait awhile and pick them up slowly.

Some of these artists were reissued in album set format during the recording ban of 1942-44 and the reissues are quite good quality, esp. the Columbia sets.

George makes a good point. Having been pressed from original masters, those later reissues are mostly very good, not to mention much less costly than the original releases. There were also 1940s reissues on the UHCA, HRS, Biltmore and other labels. Virtually all of those were dubs of original records, so the quality is hit or miss.

Steve

Steve and George thanks both for that information. I'm probably going to have to go look around eventually. Nothing beats good records.

The 1940s Columbia's have good surfaces (a lot of my classical music albums are blue label Masterworks.) Playing them on a later, Orthophonic style machine, is pretty decent sound. I use my portable grafonola or my Panatrope console.

Reissue hunting sounds like the plan then.